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Date: 7/26/2023
LONGMEADOW — A handful of significant changes were made to the student handbooks during the July 20 School Committee meeting. The changes adopted language addressing AI usage and the movement away from suspension as a disciplinary action.
Academic integrity in the K-8 handbook was broadened to include the use of artificial intelligence and consequences for such plagiarism. School Committee member Jamie Hensch said the language around plagiarism is “fuzzy” and up to interpretation. School Committee member Adam Rosenblum agreed.
Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea sought to assuage concerns and said teachers will have proactive conversations with students about expectations. “Then there’s a series of aggressive steps” in which the administrator ultimately decides whether an incident constitutes academic dishonesty, he said.
Longmeadow High School Principal Tom Landers said that at the secondary level, the district has used turnitin.com, which scans student work for instances of plagiarism, for a decade. As of the 2023-24 school year, an enhancement has been added to the program to scan for the use of AI. ChatGPT, a popular AI program, also provides a service which can review text to see if it was created using that platform.
Rosenblum asked how turnitin.com decides whether a piece of writing is plagiarized or whether software has been employed to help with synonym usage and sentence structure. Landers said the program cites “definitive” cases of plagiarism, “but it is not a perfect tool.” He said when there is questionable material and students are asked about it by a teacher, they are usually honest.
School Committee member Julie Morgan said that she would like to hear more about how students in kindergarten through eighth grade are being taught about AI programs and their proper usage.
Reminder Publishing later asked O’Shea about the AI revolution in education.
“What we have begun to do is think about how we can use [AI] wisely and how it can be used to enhance teaching and learning. I anticipate in the coming year, we will put together an AI user group to help us think through the implications,” he said.
O’Shea shared he believes AI will become ubiquitous in the classroom, similar to how devices are now everywhere. That said, he opined, “There’s ways children learn that are timeless and deep that will always endure. At the end of the day, teachers will always be the way students learn. Even with AI, we’ll continue our work to make sure that kids are learning to think critically.”
He continued, “To me, it’s really critical that we have practices in place that ensure that learning is expressed in students’ own voices.”
The School Committee voted to adopt this handbook update 6-1, with Rosenblum dissenting.
Moving on to another change in the handbook, O’Shea explained that a law regarding school suspensions was passed in fall 2022 to ensure that “districts are being more thoughtful and boarding students with behavioral challenges and to ensure that we are not resorting in prompt, quick ways to suspension.” He added, “Excluding children from school isn’t a way to correct behavior.”
One way to decrease suspensions would be through the use of Saturday school. Landers said that approximately one Saturday a month, students who might normally receive a suspension for behavior would be required to attend school for 2 ½ hours. While there, students would complete homework to make it a “productive and meaningful” time, the principal explained. He also said a small portion of the program would be devoted to students “reflecting on behavior.” As is currently the practice with suspensions, students would be required to meet with a school counselor or social worker after Saturday school.
School Committee Chair Nicole Choiniere suggested it may also be used as a mediation for chronic absenteeism, however, Landers said that there are already steps in place to deal with that issue. He suggested instead that Saturday school could be used for the handful of students who “have racked up an ungodly amount of detentions.” When asked where the practice falls into the disciplinary structure, Landers said, “Saturday school would be more severe than detention.” He added that in many cases detention would precede the use of Saturday school.
O’Shea talked about creating a student support center where “students go, have these quick check-ins with trained counselors … then get back to class.” A support center may be implemented in the 2024-25 school year. Landers said he is hoping to fill the internal suspension teacher position with a candidate with a mental health or social worker background.
Grant funding
Longmeadow Educational Excellence Foundation is a parent-run organization established in 2001 to supplement educational needs outside of the school department budget. Since then, LEEF has given almost $1.5 million in grants to Longmeadow Public Schools educators. President Sara Sam-Njogu said that this year, $83,000 was distributed to educators whose requests included instruments, books and collaborative materials.
O’Shea said the school department is “so grateful” to LEEF.
Longmeadow Public Schools also received a $43,000 competitive grant from the Healey-Driscoll administration for public safety. O’Shea said the funding would be used to upgrade the district’s security cameras.